


A Lesson in Family Magic

by Ourania95



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dark Magic Rituals (Harry Potter), Family Magic, Other, Panic Attacks, Pureblood Politics (Harry Potter), Regulus Black Lives, Tags May Change, Walburga Black Bashing, Walburga Black's A+ Parenting, star magic, the black family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 09:40:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27349078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ourania95/pseuds/Ourania95
Summary: Regulus Black was drowning, pieces torn from his flesh as the dead drag him down, when he is pulled from the depths by a familiar familial face.Consequences inevitably ensue.Updates are short, unscheduled, and usually en mass. Currently not pairing centered, though that (and most other plot aspects) are subject to change at any moment.
Relationships: Orion Black & Regulus Black, Regulus Black & Black Family, Regulus Black & Kreacher, Regulus Black & Sirius Black, Regulus Black & Walburga Black
Comments: 19
Kudos: 132





	1. Drowned

**December 31, 1979**

**9:05 pm**

**Regulus**

Regulus had been staring at the replacement locket for a while now. The golden chain hung heavy in his hand, the metal beginning to warm under his touch. It wasn't even that close of a replica, but at this point it didn't matter. Should Voldemort come across it, it would not matter how alike in appearance it looked it would be empty. Well, mostly empty. A final goodbye was written inside, so that the psychopath should know exactly who dared destroy his soul.

He should write another letter, to his mother perhaps, so that she would not look for him. Final words for his family before he became the martyr that was required of him. A heartfelt goodbye, an honest farewell. 

No. There would be no forgiveness in the eyes of Walburga Black, a fact that was tried, and true by both himself and Sirius many times. 

Sirius... 

Perhaps a farewell to Sirius?

He shook his head slightly, banishing the thought. It would do no good. No, Sirius washed his hand of Regulus long ago and it would be pointless in the end. His Father... Well. His father had been locked up in his office more often than usual, and seeing as he hardly left the place to begin with it would be unlikely that the man noticed or cared that Regulus was gone. Dead. 

The only person he really had to say goodbye to was Kreacher. And he already knew. Regulus sighed and straightened his tie (can't be caught slouching on his death day after all), Regulus looks at himself in the mirror for what will probably be the final time. 

Gods above and below, is he ever so dramatic?

"Kreacher?" At sound of his summons the bedraggled house elf apparated into the room quietly, looking at Regulus with an odd sad look. He had cried when Regulus had first given him his orders, but now... a numb sadness filled his eyes. 

"Master Regulus be calling for Kreacher?"

"Yes. It is time. Remember your instructions." _Your instructions to keep one last secret from mother for me old_ _friend._

The house elf nodded solemnly before reaching out and escorting Regulus to his demise. 

* * *

He was drowning. Hands pulled at him, his mouth open in a scream that was smothered by water before it had a chance to leave his throat, his sides clawed, his back being shredded by the dead that he will soon join. Kreacher had left him, as he had been asked----  
His whole body was lifted from the water , his lungs aching and sputtering cough raked his whole body.

Someone was speaking. "--foolish, idiotic, suicidal, son of a--" and with those final words ringing in his ears Regulus Arcturus Black knew no more.


	2. Rescued

**January ???, 1980**

**Regulus**

Regulus awoke, though only in the broadest sense of the word. His eyes fluttered open, his hair clung to his face uncomfortably, his body was cold and numb, and his eyes quickly fluttered shut once more. He danced in and out of consciousness for a multiple times, each with a break in between that could have signified minutes passing or days, before finally and fully, awaking. 

The first thing he noticed was the dark walnut wood ceiling that Regulus associated with being in the Black Manor house. He visited often during the summers when he was growing up, and it filled him with a level of comfort to know that the afterlife was apparently a familiar place--filled with memories of playing with Sirius and his cousins before everything changed. 

There was one problem though. If he was dead, as he largely suspected himself to be (who lives through an Inferni attack anyways), why did his sides still hurt where the Inferni tore into him? Why was he shivering from a cold in his bones that he can't quite shake? Why could he hear is breathing, his heartbeat, his--   
On the beginnings of a full blown panic attack, the door opened to one of the strangest sights that Regulus had seen since Sirius was forced to wear 1800s women's fashion by Bellatrix and Narcissa. 

Arcturus Black has always been a very stern looking man, and will always be a very stern looking man. He was Lord Black for over 50 years, was considered an accomplished dueler by many, and had the pride to show it. 

However, entering the room he looked almost sick, with eye bags heavier then Regulus remembered and a gaunt look about his face. Noticing, Regulus's un-subtle and wide-eyed panic, Arcturus makes quick work of summoning an elf to bring a calming a draught and all but forcing it down his throat before settling into a blue chair that Regulus hadn't noticed positioned next to his bed. 

"I'm surprised to see you fully awake already. How are you feeling? Any lingering pain?"  
Regulus shook his head, lying, and continued to stare at his Grandfather in silence for what was probably a full minute before opening his mouth to speak. 

"How am I alive?"

It came out croaky and broken, and Regulus couldn't tell if it was a linger effect of the potion or just general disuse that made it shaky and uneven. 

Arcturus leveled him with a narrow look. "Kreacher came in a panic and all but abducted me. Do you want to explain what you were doing in a cave filled with Inferni suffering the effects of an unknown dangerous potion?" 

The terrifying thing about Arcturus, is that despite not raising his voice he managed to sound more upset the more he spoke. It didn't help that Regulus didn't have an answer and was still slightly doped up on the calming draught. 

The best answer that he could come up with under duress was "Someone had to" which given the cold furious look Arcturus wore, was probably not the correct answer.   
After another beat of silence that Grandfather spent staring him down, Regulus decided to add onto his answer. 

"You see, the Dark Lord called on me to give him a house elf and Kreacher came back half dead and covered in dark magic and he had him hide a horcrux--" at that word Arcturus stiffened, but by this point Regulus reached terminal babbling and steamrolled over Grandfather's reaction, telling the whole of the story without taking a breath. 

"--so you see, someone had to do something." He finished, a little out of breath, and a little embarrassed that he just blurted out the most lethal secret he knows, but between his relief at being alive and his strange not relief that emotion was quickly bypassed. 

Trying to recover some of his hard earned decorum, Regulus sat in silence as Grandfather peered at him shrewdly. 

A beat of silence passed. Another.   
When it was starting to get stifling and Regulus was barely able to tamp down the urge to fidget, Grandfather spoke. 

"And you didn't think to inform anyone." 

It wasn't really a question, but he answered anyways filled with nervous adrenaline.

"Well no." 

Grandfather looked down, a certain slump appearing in his shoulders, before he spoke softly, stunning Regulus at the emotion in his voice. "Do you think so little of us--of me, to think that I would want you to die?"

Regulus realized with a start that he was crying. 

"That no one would notice that you had gone without leaving a note, only having the family magic inform us of your demise." He raised his head and stared Regulus in the eyes, tears openly streaming down his face. 

Regulus sat, discomforted with the emotion his Grandfather was displaying. He thought that as a dark pureblood Lord, Grandfather would be against him trying to take down Voldemort and would turn against him. 

Staring at Regulus, when it became abundant that he wasn't going to answer, Grandfather spoke again a fierceness sparked in his wet eyes.

"I think its time I reminded everyone that the Blacks are about family. First and foremost."


	3. Reunion

**January 10, 1980**

**6:19 pm**

**Regulus**

Regulus stares at the carpet. His bandages itched, and his throat was dry but he couldn't bring himself to call for a glass of water. Grandfather had been kind enough to allow him a week of healing before actually making good on his announcement, so he is no longer completely confined to bed and might be able to manage hiding his wounds if he doesn't have to move around or speak too much (or if Grandfather doesn't draw instant attention to them). 

That doesn't mean, however, he was in any position to relax. The family was told to arrive at 6:30 sharp this Thursday evening and Regulus only has minutes more of peace and quiet, assuming of course, that there are no early floo-ers. Straightening his tie and making his way to the sitting room where everyone will meet before dinner, Regulus tries to smooth out his face and tuck away any thoughts or signs of nervousness so that nothing can betray him. 

After all, he had done quite enough betraying this year, and he was only a couple weeks into it. (Why did he leave the note! He wasn't supposed to live, what if he gets found out. If he finds the note its over--).

"Ah, Regulus, right on time." Grandfather smiled politely at him as he entered the sitting room. "Tea?" He asked, motioning slightly to the tea set out on the table.

While he could never claim to be good at reading Grandfather (because really, no one besides Grandmother ever was) these few weeks he seems to have gotten worse or was painfully out of practice. Grandfather would sit at his beside sometimes, and do mundane things like read the Prophet or grumble about the workings of Wizengamot. Sometimes he would just stare at him, watching him with a strange look in his eye. Regulus didn't know what to make of it--still doesn't--no one had ever just sat beside his bed while he was sick before. Sirius would sometimes try to, when they were younger and he got sick, but Mother always shooed him away. 

"Hello Grandfather." He tried for a polite smile as he took his seat beside him, but tensed his muscles wrong as he sat and it probably came out as more of a grimace. A chime from the floo interrupted any further attempts at talking, and Grandfather sent one of the house elves, Dimsy, to go greet whichever family member joined their little get together first. 

(Please don't be Mother, _Please_ don't be Mother...) 

The first to arrive was luckily, not Walburga and was instead Lucretia and her husband Ignatius Prewett. The second was Cassiopeia Black, followed by Pollux and Irma, Cygnus and Druella, and Lucius and Narcissa. 

Everyone said hellos and begins to catch up with each other while waiting on the last stragglers (apparently Cassiopeia had taken up modeling for painters in France, and wanted everyone to know of it), and Regulus tried not to fidget or flinch at every sound. 

Floo-ing in at exactly 6:30 came in Walburga and Orion, who greeted everyone politely if a bit stiffly. After making brief talk, Walburga makes a direct line for her son. 

"And where have you been for the past week?" 

"Here. With Grandfather." His voice luckily doesn't break halfway through, but it hardly seems to appease Walburga's line of questioning as she opens her mouth again when Bellatrix walks in. 

Giving a quick, sharp smile to Bellatrix she rounds on him again. 

"And you didn't think to inform me of this change in living beforehand?" 

Regulus opened his mouth to utter what was probably a pathetic excuse (he always was terrible at lying) when the floo chimes again and Dimsy brings in the last person Regulus expected to see. 

" _Sirius_." He’s so shocked he practically breathes the name but it still manages to draw the attention of the majority of the nearby people. 

He grins smugly at the stunned faces in the suddenly quiet room. "Miss me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lemme know in the comments if you have the patience/want to beta read for me or yell at me on tumblr (phrog-crime)


	4. authors note

heyo,

I would like to start off by saying that I am NOT abandoning this story. I will, however, be re-writing the majority of it. I dont like how I've portrayed the characters and want to iron out some plot points. It'll probably be a while before I update anything but I will return! 

Yell at me on my new and (not) improved tumblr if you want updates or anything: phrog-crime

thanks for understanding


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